Despite progresses made in the digital technology for printed publication, there is still a major gap, or disconnect, between the world of printed information and the world of the Internet. Publishers such as the Log Angeles Times and Business Week magazine have been circulating their print versions for a long time. However, they still fail to address one basic need of the general public who still read and depend on printed media for information.
Publishers have set up their own web sites as an on-line version, and more, of their printed version. However, it is not that convenient for those who try to retrieve a specific printed article from the web site, or the Internet in general. When a reader first finds an interesting article on a printed newspaper that she would like to file away or share with a colleague, the reader almost always has to endure the following manual steps: first, clipping the article from the newspaper, trimming the clip to fit on a standardized paper for photocopying, mailing or faxing. This process is relatively easy when the article occupies only a space which is smaller than the size of a standard paper, e.g. 8.5 inch by 11 inch. The process can become more tedious, when the article is printed across several pages, with different dimensions on each page. As can be appreciated by anyone who has tried to clip a multi-page article from a newspaper such as the Wall Street Journal, the efficient space management achieved by the publishing staff made a terrible and inefficient task for the readers who want to clip, save, file, photocopy or fax the article.
Even if the article is successfully clipped and filed away by the reader, it is then incumbent upon the reader's own filing systems to ensure that she can locate the clipped article later from her files when she needs it. For those who receive the clipped article faxed or mailed from this reader, their own filing systems also become a key if they wish to locate the same article from their own files later. In other words, the whole process is a terrible waste of time with no guarantee of precise retrieval. In a world where progress is made by the sharing of information, the printed newspaper and magazine have little value, other than conveying the printed information to the reader during reading. They are no way near being conduits for saving, sharing and distributing information.
Compared to clipping the article from a newspaper and photocopying it, getting the article from a magazine is relatively simpler, since most magazines are of a standard size. Even so, if a reader wishes to file, share, or fax an multi-page article from a magazine, the reader must still flip through all the pages to make a photocopy of the article. Again, the practice of placing advertisements on each pages, which is considered revenue-generating for the publishers, makes it quite inefficient for readers who want to save the article or share with others. An article may be only 1 page long, but with the insertion of advertisements, the article now spans across 5 pages. Worse yet, many technical periodicals, e.g. InfoWorld or EE Times, do not come in standard sizes. Clipping the articles for filing, copying and forwarding in those magazines thus becomes irritatingly time-consuming and inefficient. Further, even the article is adequately clipped and distributed, the same problem of storing, filing, distributing the clip reoccurs.
Faxing the clipped article creates another undesirable feature, since sequential faxing of the same article makes sequentially poorer quality of fax copies. And that is after going through the trouble of clipping, trimming, pasting, and photocopying etc.
The aforementioned problems apply to those who still like to read the printed newspaper or magazine, which is still the majority of the general public. Those using the Internet as their only source of information tend not have the same problem, since they get whatever that is presented on the web. When an Internet client browses the LA Times web site and finds an article he wishes to file for future reference, or to share with a colleague or a friend, he can take advantage of some utilities provided by the web site. For example, most are familiar with the tool such as “TO E-MAIL THIS ARTICLE TO A FRIEND,” where with a few mouse clicks, the digital article is on its way to any recipient the Internet client desires, including the client itself. The Internet client can also use a print utility to print the article for his own reading or filing. Without question, such digital information can readily be saved, filed, forwarded, shared and distributed through the Internet. The teaming of PCs and the Internet makes it easy to store, share and file information in the digital format. However, nothing has been done for those who rely on the traditional printed media for information.
The disconnect between the digital world and the conventional print world makes filing, sharing and distributing printed information quite burdensome. While everything in the digital and Internet world is replicable and distributable, the way to make use of the printed articles in newspapers and magazines is still no different from the early days.
Therefore, the conventional way of clipping, photocopying, filing, or sharing a printed article from a newspaper or a magazine is inefficient. The conventional way also fails to guarantee easy and accurate retrieval.
The disadvantage and irritations in accessing and handling conventional printed information can be found in every aspect of the process: clipping, retrieving, storing/saving, filing, or faxing. Each step takes time and efforts, not to mention the demand on paper, on photocopying cost, on faxing cost and on storage space.
Even with the advent of the Internet and web servers, such needs are not entirely addressed. When a reader of the printed article goes to the web site to try to locate the article, he is often forced to start from the very top-level home page of the publisher. He will then have to find his way to the intended article, section by section or layer by layer, even when he knows exactly which article he is looking for. The problem lies in treating file retrieval the same as a search, when in fact all the user wants is to reach the desired article by pressing a few buttons.
Publishers of newspapers and magazines tend to use their web sites to draw traffic, by making Internet clients spend more time at the site. While many sites also offer a search utility, the results are often an overkill for the reader who is only looking for a specific article he has just read in the printed version. In other words, the web servers currently supported by the publishers do not facilitate easy and quick targeted search by the readers of the printed version.
Some tools have recently been developed in the publication world. In the Nov. 28, 2000 issue of the BUSINESS 2.0 magazine, a few articles in its “In Depth” section were provided with a link, such as “B2.0 Getting Hitched,” for retrieval. The link, using RealName tool, led a reader to the on-line version of BUSINESS 2.0 at www.business2.com site, where the article was maintained. For the reader to save, print or email the article, another tool called “SAVE THIS” was used, which stored only the link at another site, called www.savethis.com.
However, www.savethis.com only stores link. Hence, whatever was stored by it was only valid at the mercy of the publisher's web site. In fact, accessing the article from www.savethis.com at a later time, using the article's link, was directed to the publisher's archival search tool, where the user was asked to conduct a search or to order from archive. Therefore, the user never had full control of the digital format of the printed article. All the user ever had was the link. Also, since only a limited number of articles came with the on-line version, it still presented an inefficient tool for the readers, since for the vast majority of articles in the magazine, the readers still needed to rely on the conventional clip, photocopy, fax or file routine. The limited usage of web linkage failed to address the needs of the readers, as well as fix the disconnect between printed media and the Internet.
Therefore, it is desirable to simplify and streamline the retrieval and handling of printed information.
It is desirable to be able to locate a desired printed article quickly.
It is also desirable to be able to store and retrieve the printed article efficiently.
It is desirable to be able to distribute the printed article efficiently.
It is desirable to enable others to store and retrieve the article just as efficiently.
With computers and the Internet as ubiquitous as they are today, the above needs and desires can finally be addressed as will be disclosed in the following.